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  • Model rocketry

    One of things that I do as a hobby is build and fly model rockets. I will admit by building skills is not as good as my flying skill but my rockets do fly safely. It's been a long while since I have flown but I do have photos of some of the launches at the HawaiiStories Gallery. As well as some photos taken from the vantage point of a model rocket in flight.

  • #2
    Re: Model rocketry

    Hey those are pretty cool rockets and the photos taken from them are really neat too. Looks like a good hobby to have. My hobby lately has been geocaching. The finding of hidden treasure boxes while hiking or otherwise exploring. It's fun too.
    Life is either an adventure... or you're not doing it right!!!

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    • #3
      Re: Model rocketry

      Is Geocaching where a hiker leaves something behind for another hiker to find using known clues? I kinda read about that a few years ago in the papers.

      As for model rocketry, I remember back in the 60's when Kahala Mall was called the Waialae Shopping Center, Cyril's Cyclery sold Estes model rockets in their mall store. Then Pete's Modelcraft (where Jamba Juice is now) sold model rockets. Ahh those nichrome wires.

      So what's the biggest engines out there now? I remember class C and D engines and those puny A engines without the wadding for the chute. When I was a kid back in the late 60's one of my neighbors had the Saturn Five multi stage model rocket but he never launched it because there was no place big enough to handle a three stager without being blown into the ocean by the trades. I had an Estes Vanguard III single stage rocket that used a single class C engine.

      Those were fun days, I'm glad to see model rocketry is still alive and well.
      Life is what you make of it...so please read the instructions carefully.

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      • #4
        Re: Model rocketry

        The most powerful engine that Estes makes is the E9 engine. The first link in my original post has a video of a launch by an E9-4 engine on a model rocket called the Broadsword that is about 3 feet tall, 2.8 inches in diameter and weighs around 8-9 ounces. I am guessing for that launch it went some where between 500 to 600 feet.

        Another company called Aerotech makes engines in the G range for standard model rocketry, but also makes engines more powerful in the H to M range but they kind of cost an arm and a leg to buy as well as other forms to fill out, licenses to get.

        The Saturn V was never a multi stage rocket, it was a multi engine cluster but you could fly it as single engine D engine powered rocket instead of the 3 C engines firing off at the same time. A multi stage rocket is where one engine fires, then fires off another engine while dropping a stage behind.
        Last edited by helen; September 11, 2005, 01:44 AM.

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        • #5
          Re: Model rocketry

          wow I guess model rocket engines have evolved! And did you know it's almost 2am? I think we're the ony ones chatting here
          Life is what you make of it...so please read the instructions carefully.

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          • #6
            Re: Model rocketry

            Rockets were my thing in the early 70s as a kid. Pete's in Ala Moana and Kamehaheha SC were the pitstops for my mom. Whatever happened to that cool yellow Cox launchpad? I remember building them and being afraid to put the C engines in them for fear of losing them. I think the longest I had a rocket was 4 launches before I lost them.

            Haha I remember sending cash (bills and coins) to buy stuff mailorder from Estes and Centuri and still get my order.

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            • #7
              Re: Model rocketry

              I did model rocketry during high school in the 1970's. Sort of let it go when I was in college, but I would look over the model rocket stuff at Pearlridge's Hobby Company whenever I was in the area.

              Got back in the hobby in 1994, been in the hobby since then but latey I haven't flown rockets as often as I did in 1994-1999.

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              • #8
                Re: Model rocketry

                When I was a teenager back in the early 70's I launched a small C-engine model rocket from my front yard at 5123 Kilauea Avenue where I grew up in. My rocket failed to deploy the parachute and it came crashing down in my neighbor's locked backyard, then the wadding was expelled out of the rocket tube. From the other side of the wood fence I saw smoke billowing from his backyard as the sparks from the delay ignited some dead grass behind the fence gate.

                I scaled the fence and grabbed his garden hose and put it out, burying the burn't grass before my neighbors came home. After that I never launched another rocket again. Just not enough space in my neighborhood to do that kind of stuff.
                Life is what you make of it...so please read the instructions carefully.

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                • #9
                  Re: Model rocketry

                  Wow, this brings back memories. I remember being in a model rocket club during the early 70's, Honorocs. As I remember competition flying was down at Kapiolani Park, next to the old driving range. During windy days, it would still blow many of the rockets out to sea. Club meetings were often at the McCully Library.

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                  • #10
                    Re: Model rocketry

                    Hey anyone seen the movie October Sky? That was a cool rocket movie. Man I probably coulda woulda shoulda been a rocket scientist.

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                    • #11
                      Re: Model rocketry

                      Tradewinds swiped the rockets I built when I was a kid in the '60s. I remember a Wac Corporal with a B3-7 engine sailing off toward Queen's Surf from Kapiolani Park, never to be seen again. At that point I wished there were something that would delay the parachute opening until a LOT later!

                      Then in high school a small group of us actually went through the tedious process of figuring out how to make our own small engines. Was a real trick trying to make them work -- they'd either just burn up in place or explode.

                      Finally figured it all out and got some small ones to actually fly. And none of us lost our fingers over it!

                      Only one of our group ever became an aerospace engineer. The rest got into other things.

                      I still check out the latest developments in model rockets just out of curiosity. Some have actually launched wireless remote videocameras which is pretty cool. And, of course, there's that long-time interest in model airplanes, too.

                      When I "grew up" I actually learned to fly the real thing and logged a few hundred hours when it was barely affordable. Sure miss it all sometimes.

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                      • #12
                        Re: Model rocketry

                        A couple of years (has it been that long) ago I took some of my digital cameras and a Kodak APS camera to Magic Island and take some pictures with those cameras.

                        The link to the gallery of photos is here, while a picture of the 5 cameras used is here. The two cameras from Aiptek were the ones that was placed on a model rocket. The photos taken from the model rocket and shown here are from the Pencam II camera. Haven't worked out the bugs with the Aiptek Mini Pencam.

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                        • #13
                          Re: Model rocketry

                          Me and my son go rocket shooting just about every week at Halawa park.
                          Sandy's is too ridiculous. Lost our first rocket we launched a few weeks ago.
                          Is there any rocket clubs? I use to belong to one in 1970. i forgot the name.
                          But the pres at the time was Michael Okuda who is a die hard trekkie fan who use to show up at lauches and meetings (Manoa Library) wearing a mustard Star Trek shirt like Capt. Kirk wore! He went on to even make weapon props for the ST movies and work on the sets. Shoot for the stars?

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                          • #14
                            Re: Model rocketry

                            Originally posted by craigwatanabe
                            wow I guess model rocket engines have evolved! And did you know it's almost 2am? I think we're the ony ones chatting here
                            Craig - They always had the "D E F's" we just could not afford them! Maybe the "D's" $3.95 for 3 back in the 70's not they are $9.00! The "E & F's" were Centuri engines. Remember the one we lost at Waialae Iki Park? went into the golf course.

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                            • #15
                              Re: Model rocketry

                              Originally posted by speedtek
                              Is there any rocket clubs? I use to belong to one in 1970. i forgot the name.
                              But the pres at the time was Michael Okuda who is a die hard trekkie fan who use to show up at lauches and meetings (Manoa Library) wearing a mustard Star Trek shirt like Capt. Kirk wore! He went on to even make weapon props for the ST movies and work on the sets. Shoot for the stars?
                              That club was the Honorocs! Meetings were also at the Moiliii library. The first time I saw the movie, "Dark Star" was at one of those meetings.

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